Pop Shop
Friday, February 25, 2005
One of the Financial Advisors in the office where I work always talks about having a Pop Shop, or he asks if I'm , "gonna hit the Pop Shop tonight." Basically what he means is he's gonna pop the tops off of plenty of beers tonight. It's great because many times I say that I am, when I'm clearly just going home to have a peaceful night with the family. Meanwhile, I can guarantee you, when he says he is Pop Shoppin', he's pounding some brews...specifically Budweiser. And this is no young, single bachelor. This guy is middle age and married with kids. On a regular basis - that being your typical weekday or weekend - he'll pop the tops off of a minimum of a six pack. He's always in a great mood and he notes he hasn't been sick in forever - stating that's due to the brew.
I bring all this up today because he asked me, as he always does, if I was gonna Pop Shop tonight, and I am happy to report that I gave him a truthfull thumbs up. I still have a jug of Red Oak - the local brew pubs signature beer - that I won during last weeks poker tournament. Having already pounded 2 jugs a few weeks back, I can safely say that beer won is twice as tasty as beer paid for.
Moving on to last night. I didn't fair so well in the NL tournament held at Red Oak...no more jugs of beer as of yet. I will only tell you about one hand...my last one...
About an hour into the tourney, and with the blinds aggressively raising every 20 minutes, I found myself with about half my starting stack. I was in serious need of chips as my fellow table mates (that sounds gay, huh?) were hiding behind some big chipstacks. I did successfully steal some blinds with timely raises in previous hands, but now was the time for all good men to come to the aid of...me...by gracefully losing their chips to...me. On this particular hand, in late position, I look down at A 10 offsuit. Clearly not a power hand, but one I can work with. I decided to limp and show weakness hoping to control the post flop play. It had folded around to me and the only other player was the big blind who checked. When he checked, I felt like my hand was superior...thinking he either had a weak hand, or at best, an Ace with weak kicker. The flop brought A 9 8 and the BB bet $250. I decided to show aggression and push in for my whole stack, only about $750 more. He immediately called and flipped over A K...a nice slow play on his part. I was hurting needing a 10 or some serious runner, runner action to take it down. When the dealer flipped the turn, a 10 of spades, the table gave a loud roar and I was happy as a lark, whatever the hell a lark is. But my excitement lasted about 5 seconds as the dealer flipped the river, a redemption king, causing an even louder roar. It would have been a bad beat if I had taken that hand, but amazingly as I stood up from the table, people consoled me as if I had been bad beat. What a crazy game.
Interestingly, when I saw the 10 of spades on the turn, I immediately thought I was receiving redemption from my previous tourney. Last Sunday, in a matter of 10 minutes, I lost 2 big hands when - in both situations - 2 outers hit on the river. The strange thing was both times it was the 10 of spades that did me in. So, as I mentioned, I really thought I was catching some poker redemption, albeit from a different joker, until that King dropped the ball. In general, I can't think of many activities like poker that can cause such up and down emotions, seconds apart from each other. To go from serious underdog, to leading in the hand, to losing on the river, is just draining. And I love it. Funny thing is, even when it's a free tournament, it still sucks to stand up and not play. No wonder there are so many railbirds at tournaments. I stuck around last night and watched, and every second I was wanting to be in the game. Good times, good beers.
One way or another I will hit the felt this weekend. It might be the online version, but it will happen. And when it does, I'll be here to report back on my action. And along the way, I'm gonna hit the pop shop. I suggest you do the same...
posted by TripJax @ 7:43 PM,
1 Comments:
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